Romanticism
Characteristics that make Frankenstein a Romantic Novel
Source LOVE OF NATURE "...I feel a cold northern breeze play upon my cheeks, which braces my nerves, and fills me with delight." (Pg. 9) "I may there discover the wondrous power which attracts the needle; and may regulate a thousand celestial observations that require only this voyage to render their seeming eccentricities constant forever." (Pg. 10) "I have often attributed my attachment to, my passionate enthusiasm for, the dangerous mysteries of the ocean, to that production of the most imaginative of modern poets." (Pg. 15) "Even broken in spirit as he is, no one can feel more deeply than he does the beauties of nature. The starry sky, the seam and every sight afforded y these wonderful regions seem still to have the power of elevating his soul from earth." (Pg. 23) BELEIF IN THE POWER OF THE INDIVIDUAL “Six years have passed since I resolved on my present undertaking. I can, even now, remember the hour from which I dedicated myself to this great enterprise.” (Pg. 10) “…do I not deserve to accomplish some great purpose? My life might have been passed in ease and luxury; but I preferred glory to every enticement that wealth placed in my path.” (Pg. 11) “…I feel my heart glow with an enthusiasm which elevated me to heaven; for nothing contributes so much to tranquilize the mind as a steady purpose…” (Pg. 10) “I am practically industrious – painstaking; - a workman to execute with perseverance and labour…” (Pg. 15) DESIRE TO EXPLORE THE UNKNOWN “This breeze, which has traveled from the regions towards which I am advancing, gives me a foretaste of those icy climes. Inspirited by this wind of promise, my day dreams become more fervent and vivid.” (Pg. 9) “I shall satiate my ardent curiosity with the sight of a part of the world never before visited…” (Pg. 10) “I have read with ardor the accounts of the various voyages which have been made in the prospect of arriving at the North Pacific Ocean through the seas which surround the pole.” (Pg. 10) “…when shall I return?…If I succeed, many, many months, perhaps years, will pass before you and I may meet. If I fail, you will see me again soon, or never.” (Pg. 11) |
Elements of Romanticism in Frankenstein
Source Mary Shelley was deeply influenced by the romantics, and the reader of Frankenstein can certainly identify a number of characteristics of romanticism in this novel. Some critics have argued that Frankenstein is actually more sophisticated than the prose of other romantic writers, as this novel “initiates a rethinking of romantic rhetoric” (Guyer 77). That quest, of course, is Victor Frankenstein’s effort to create a living being out of raw material in his laboratory. It is particularly curious that this quest occurs within the confines of Victor’s private, secluded laboratory, which is unlike the natural, pastoral environments of so many romantic texts. Yet, note the nature imagery in the following line, in which Victor expresses his feelings about the undertaking in one of the important quotes from Frankenstein by Mary Shelley : “No one can conceive the variety of feelings which bore me onwards, like a hurricane, in the first enthusiasm of success,” he tells the reader, recalling the heady project in his lab. “Life and death appeared to me ideal bounds, which I should first break through…. A new species would bless me as its creator and source; many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me” (Shelley 51). Victor Frankenstein is a romantic character to the extent that he reflected the romantic writers’ emphasis on a new way of seeing. The romantics believed that it was individual and collective visual imagination that would create a new understanding of the world and lead to a more perfect version of human beings and the societies in which they lived. Victor is the ultimate dreamer, who is preoccupied by otherworldly concerns and unattainable ideals. In this sense, he is highly romantic. |